The Last Korean Road Trip: Adventures in Busan

Welcome to the next leg of our final road trip! To recap: with a year to spend in South Korea, our goal was to see as much of the country as possible. We planned our last big road trip for the major holiday week of Buddha’s birthday. Making several stops, we covered some well-known sites we hadn’t visited yet: Songnisan National Park, Andong Hahoe Folk Village, and the city of Busan.

The weather unfortunately was not on our side. Indeed, this was hands-down the rainiest vacation we have ever taken, with significant rainfall on six out of seven days of traveling. In this post, we visit Busan, South Korea’s second largest city, about a 2.5-hour drive from our previous stop, Andong. With three full days in Busan, we feel like we barely scratched the surface of what there is to see in this city, especially since we had only one day of sun. However, we made the most of it and saw as much as we could. Hold onto your hats (and umbrellas), folks!

Nampo-dong and Gwangbokdong Food Street

Due to the bad weather, we rearranged our itinerary a lot while we were in Busan. We stayed at a hotel in Seomyeon district, which is centrally located and an easy subway ride to most of Busan’s famous sites. When we arrived in the city, it was already raining and we were hungry for lunch. This combo decided our first-day itinerary: a visit to Busan’s best-known markets, all within walking distance of each other.

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Gwangbokdong Food Street

The most famous thing to do on this food street near Gukje Market is to eat noodle dishes served by Korean women at tables set up along the narrow road. The rain prevented us from partaking of this particular tradition, but we found another Busan specialty perfectly suited for a cool, damp day: Dwaeji Gukbap (돼지국밥), a soup made with pork bone broth, green onion, and rice and accompanied by items such as green pepper and brined shrimp. Busan is known for serving up this hearty comfort soup, and we soon were feeling warm and dry.

Gukje Market

Our lunch needs satisfied, we continued walking to Gukje Market, said to be South Korea’s largest traditional market. In the maze of crowded alleys, shoppers can find anything from socks to traditional Korean snacks to an array of items emblazoned with the face of their favorite K-star. Bonus for us: parts of the market are covered, an added convenience for rainy-day shoppers.

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BIFF Square (Busan International Film Festival Square)

We continued walking south from Gukje Market to find BIFF Square, the main venue of the annual Busan International Film Festival. The Square itself didn’t have a lot going on while we were there, although if you’re looking for a street food snack this seemed to be the spot. There are lots of shops and movie theaters in this area if you’re looking for a more modern shopping experience or a place to sit and enjoy Korean cinema.

Jagalchi Fish Market

Heading still further south to Busan’s waterfront led us to Jagalchi Fish Market. Had we not been to a South Korean fish market already, we might have been more impressed. However, having already visited Seoul’s Noryangjin Fish Market on several occasions, we made a short visit to Jagalchi and kept going. If you haven’t been to another large fish market, though, this one would be worth visiting. It’s enormous, with vendors selling every kind of seafood imaginable and eager to sell you a fresh seafood dinner. Unlike Noryangjin which now is all indoors, Jagalchi has vendors set up both inside and outside the market building.

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Seomyeon

The rain finally giving us a break, we headed back to “our” neighborhood to see its famed neon nightscape. Seomyeon is known for shopping, restaurants, nightclubs, and general night-life. Though not much of this is particularly our scene, we did enjoy our stroll through the bright lights and energetic vibe of this neighborhood.

Beaches

Busan is South Korea’s beach town, so no trip to the city would be complete without a trip to its miles-long waterfront. On our one sunny day in Busan, we hit the beaches for a long stroll along some of Busan’s most famous sites.

Igidae Coastal Walk

There are several coastal trails to choose from if you’re looking to explore sections of Busan’s waterfront. We chose the Igidae Coastal Trail for the simple reason that it fit easily into our itinerary. With one day of sun during our stay in Busan, we needed to maximize our touring time!

We started at the southern end of the coastal walk, having a taxi drop us off at the Oryukdo Skywalk and then walking north along the coast to the end of the trail.

The Oryukdo Skywalk is a 15-meter glass bridge built over Seungdumal (“saddle”) Point, allowing observers to view the aqua blue waves many meters beneath their feet. The point also has a view of the Oryukdo Islands just off the coast of Busan.

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From the skywalk, it’s easy to access the Igidae Coastal Trail just up a long set of stairs above the point. The trail is not too strenuous and has gorgeous views the whole way to keep your interest. It is a bit narrow in spots, so on a sunny day during a holiday week it felt crowded at times.

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Haeundae Beach

Haeundae is Busan’s best-known beach. On a sunny summer day, it’s said to be teeming with families under a sea of beach umbrellas. On a cloudy spring day, the beach area was pleasantly humming but not overly busy. A sand sculpture festival with a dinosaur theme seemed to be the main draw during this holiday week.

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In the Haeundae area, we found a small restaurant selling grilled “clams.” I say “clams” because they were actually scallops, but they were advertised all over Busan as grilled clams. In any event, we were provided with seasoned scallops on the half-shell, and the proprietor kindly showed us the proper method for grilling our own delicious meal.

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Haeundae Cine Road

From Haeundae Beach, we took a very long walk along the Haeundae Cine Road, featuring cinema-themed artwork. There are also plaques and posters memorializing some famous K-dramas and films. Despite the length of the walk, this was a pleasant way to see a large piece of Busan’s waterfront, and the Cine Road is a broad seawall, lending plenty of space for walkers and bikers to share the path. Lots of fun trick-eye artwork is also featured along the way.

One of Busan’s most distinctive views is of its Gwangan Bridge, one of the longest in Korea. It’s famed for its evening light display. Thanks to a travel tip from a friend, we made it our goal to reach the Park Hyatt Busan along the Cine Road just before sunset. The 30th floor lounge serves light meals and drinks and has an amazing view of the Gwangan Bridge. These “cheap seats” provided all the glory of the evening view without paying for a night (or even a full meal!) at the Park Hyatt.

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Gwangalli Beach

Continuing our theme of loooong walks, we continued west along the Cine Road to reach Gwangalli Beach. Along the way, we passed through Millak Waterside Park, where the popular Korean pastime of evening picnicking was in full effect. Bottles of soju were in abundance as park visitors awaited the Gwangan Bridge’s nightly light show.

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The light show itself wasn’t terribly exciting – mostly involving images displayed on large LED screens and the lights on the bridge changing color. However, the whole experience of absorbing the nighttime ambience of Busan was well worth the long evening stroll.

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Thank you for joining us for this walking tour of some of Busan’s top sites. You can see more photos of Busan here. The Igidae Coastal Trail has its own album here.

In our next post, visit Busan’s most famous temples as we celebrate Buddha’s birthday!